Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance

The critically acclaimed action-RPG hits GCN a year late. Has the wait been worth it?

It's taken a while, but Interplay has taken one of its best new original properties for the consoles, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and delivered it to GameCube. As a really good dungeon hack-and-slash with some deeper RPG elements and a great story to boot, Dark Alliance is in a class of its own on GCN. However, it comes a year late with a bafflingly destroyed framerate, courtesy of the High Voltage. If can overlook that blunder and have not played it yet on another system, we highly recommend you consider investing in what is one of GameCube's best co-operative games to date.

The Facts

Dungeons & Dragons themed adventure brings third edition rules set of the historic game to Nintendo's next-gen console

Detailed spell and experience system will offer up one of the deepest RPG experiences yet on the system

Choose from three different characters and improve them as you see fit, choosing weaponry, armor, special skills, and more

Two-player cooperative play, easily one of Dark Alliance's best features

Complete the game to unlock a new character, The Gauntlet, and extreme difficulty

No progressive scan support

No surround sound option

Gameplay Originally developed by Snowblind Studios, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance was a considerable feat when it released on the PlayStation 2 last year. It's was a totally original D&D based production that surprised fans, becoming one of the most highly acclaimed titles on the PS2 that year. Here we are a year later and Interplay has finally got around to bringing the refined hack-and-slash to GameCube, but does it have enough to make as big of an impact? In terms of gameplay, yes it does -- almost. It's the exact same design and no corners have been cut in this regard. At the same time, Interplay has let Dark Alliance age for too long without making any improvements before porting it to GCN, which is damaging for any game.

Nonetheless, the Dark Alliance is still a splendid accomplishment as to its original intentions. It features a well-conceived engaging story, rewarding hack-and-slash gameplay with an overlying RPG structure, tricky puzzles, incredible and varied foes, awesome weapons, and addictive cooperative play. Running around dungeons and killing things may seem like a worn out concept, but Snowblind's nicely polished Dark Alliance proves that untrue.

You begin the quest by choosing one of three characters: Human archer, Elven sorceress, or Dwarven fighter; they are long range, magical, and close range fighters respectively. So, since they all have unique strengths you must consider what suits you best when you begin. Furthermore, playing cooperatively with a friend is very cool because you can balance your strengths, leading you to depend on each other. You can also play single player and import your character or a friend's character into your quest at anytime. It's a super addition because if you can play cooperatively Dark Alliance is totally captivating.

Naturally the game still unfolds the same regardless of what option. With plenty of story elements behind it, you head into numerous dungeons to slay evil foe after evil foe. Along the way you will gain gold, experience, and pick up weapons. The aforementioned alone is reason enough to play Dark Alliance. How can anyone resist saving up the gold for the Frost Bastard Sword +1 or the Flaming Burst Battle Axe? You can buy and sell weapons at the local shops. Anything you earn in the huge dungeons is yours for barter. You have to use your head, however, as you an only carry so much weight at a time. Furthermore, the experience system adheres to the third edition Dungeons & Dragons rules set. It's the first console title to use that and drastically affects how the game plays; stat points, race-based limits, and armor class calculation all benefit from this. Even if you don't know what it is, trust us that it's a great addition.